Ship sailing under Panamanian flag with 17 Georgian sailors missing
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The ship “Pantelena IMO 9321469” sailing under a Panamanian flag with 17 Georgian sailors on board has been missing since August 14.
The Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs says contact with the ship has been disrupted.
The ship was transporting oil.
“The owner of the ship, Greek company Lotus Shipping, is carrying out an investigation while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs together with the Maritime Transport Agency is actively cooperating with the company to help the investigation process. We are also actively working with the Panama Flag organisation. Regional military forces as well as UK’s maritime center UKMTO are also involved in the process,” the Ministry siad.
Contact with the lost ship was last established while it was sailing near the west coast of Africa, in Guinea Bay.
The Maritime Transport Agency of Georgia reports that 22-year-old Davit Razmadze, a Georgian sailor who disappeared from a ship in Libya on 7 January 2019, has been found dead. Director of the Maritime Transport Agency of Georgia Tamar Ioseliani says his body has been identified.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry has responded to a briefing of the family members of two Georgian sailors who have been unable to leave Libya for two months, saying that the restriction is related to legal procedures and the death of another Georgian sailor back in January.
Libyan law enforcers have allowed two Georgian sailors, Raul Takidze and Manuchar Kekelidze, to return to their homeland after a three-month exit ban related to the controversial death of another sailor David Razmadze back in January 2019 in the Libyan port of Misrata.
Four sailors, including one Georgian citizen have been kidnapped by pirates from a Greek-flagged tanker in the Africa’s Port of Lome, Togo Terminal.
Two Georgian sailors who were detained in Lybia in 2017 for illegally crossing the border and smuggling contraband fuel have been released, states the Georgian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vladimer Konstantinidi.
The Georgian Maritime Transport Agency on Tuesday said a group of three sailors, including two Georgian citizens, had been kidnapped from a ship anchored in territorial waters of Gabon during the previous night.
Under the leadership of Georgian captain Vazha Jangveladze, sailors executed a rescue mission in the Mediterranean Sea, saving 34 lives, the Maritime Transport Agency of Georgia said on Tuesday.